Rugby: Puddletown ease to East Dorset win

LEADERS Puddletown continued their unbeaten start to the regular season in both league and cup.

With the Greenfields pitch unusually wet and cutting up, it didn’t provide the best of conditions for open running rugby.

However, it was the home team’s outside-backs that made the most of the arduous work done by the forwards.

Within three minutes of the start, the men in red showed their attacking intent, winning a line-out 15 metres from the opposition try line and recycling the ball right across the pitch from one corner to the other, with outside-centre Matt Watts going over in the corner to score the opening unconverted try.

The next 20 minutes or so was a real arm wrestle between the two defences, with the conditions, infringements at the breakdown and sloppy passes not helping either side.

Once again, the Puddletown pack were the more dominant and after winning a scrum against the head, fly-half Tom Yeatman, chipped a superbly weighted kick through for right wing John Moise to score the first of his three tries.

On an afternoon that the place kickers will want to forget the extras went begging.

Before the break, Watts scored his second try of the game, which was a mirror image of his first, this time going over in the left corner.

Right on the stroke of half-time, John Moise also got his second from good first phase ball set up by the forwards from a scrum.

The half time score flattered the home side and did not reflect the determination of the visitors.

The second half saw the East Dorset side put up considerable resistance against the more attacking home side, with the pitch getting worse and the ball becoming greasy there were errors all round.

Puddletown once again broke the deadlock after 60 minutes, with a well-worked try down the right, hooker Jez Beale making a break passing to Moise, who in turn fed the ball to full-back Ryan Snook who forced his way over.

The last score of the Dorset & Wilts Two South game started with a scrum on half-way, the Puddletown number eight Pearce Mercer picked up at the base and made a 40-metre break down the blind side, he off-loaded to right winger Moise who did well to get over in the corner for his third and final try.

Puddletown face a re-run this week against the same opposition in the semi-final of the Dorset & Wilts Junior Vase at Greenfields.

Despite the Puddletown backs taking all the glory, coach Sam Cload recognised the hard graft put in by the home forwards and awarded the man of the match to prop Mark Cleak.

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